Just Friends
by nashi-hime
Summary: Juushiro confesses his love to Shusui, but does he feel the same way back? Shonen-Ai.


And here we start "Fanfiction of July" with #1: ShunJuu! Pretty much all of them will be oneshot's. Enjoy!

Credit also goes to the song, "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling. I was listening to it while writing this, and there's a good ShunJuu video to it!

……….

Juushiro coughed into a tissue from the box on his nightstand. It had been a long night last night, not only breaking up fights between Kiyone and Sentaro, but there had been countless questions brought to him by the twenty new rookies to his squad, fresh out of the academy, not to mention mountains of paperwork that he had decided to help Shuuhei with ever since Division Nine had lost its captain.

He had gone to bed late (well, "early", considering it was in the AM hours), and woken up early, something he never liked doing. Now he could get back to sleep, plagued with a stubborn cough. Sometimes he did wonder if he should have Kaien replaced, so he could get a little more help with the paperwork. There were more than enough Shinigami in his division that could get the job done just as well as Kaien, but it wouldn't be the same. He always told himself that, unless he was forced too, he would never get a new Vice-Captain in replacement of Kaien. He coughed again, speckling his sheets with little drops of blood. _I may be forced to find a Vice-Captain sooner than I want, if my illness keeps flaring up like this…_There was then a knock at his door. Funny, usually Sentaro and Kiyone would forcefully beat anybody, no matter how important, who tried to disturb him while he was in his little quarantine hut. That is, unless it was one person…

"Hey, how ya doin'?" a familiar voice asked. Shunsui. He was his usual friendly self, although, surprisingly, he was his unusual sober self. Still, drunken or sober, Juushiro loved his dear friend. Literally. Ever since their days at the academy, Juushiro's admiration of Shunsui's "strong yet laid back" philosophy had morphed into love a long time ago, not that he had ever had the courage to tell him though, so it made him more than happy when Shunsui came to visit him on his own free will.

Shunsui took one look at Juushiro and frowned. "You don't look so hot, should I get Unohana-taichou for you?"

"No, I'll be fine. I like the company though. I have Kiyone and Sentaro, but they spend more time fighting than actually helping me out."  
"I see. It actually wasn't that hard getting here though. Kiyone and Sentaro were fighting over who got to fill out what paperwork, or something stupid like that…"

"I see," said Juushiro, leaning back on his pillow. Then, another wave of coughs hit him, and he had to sit up again.

"You really shouldn't by lying down. It may work for a little bit, but my parents always had us sit up when we were sick. It actually does help, let me show you," said Shunsui as he removed his shoes and hat. He draped his flowered haori over Juushiro's shoulders, wrapping him in it like a baby. Then, scooting Juushiro forward, Shunsui propped up Juushiro's pillow and sat against it, sitting in his bed. He put Juushiro in his lap, forming a human chair for him. "Comfy?" Shunsui couldn't help but ask. Juushiro's face flushed, forming a surprising contrast with his snowy hair. "Y-yes. Thank you." Juushiro was stunned. This was his moment, when he could finally tell Shunsui how he felt. He opened his mouth, but instead, another spray of blood came out. "Whoa," said Shunsui, trying to get his arms out of the way of Juushiro's violent cough. He rubbed Juushiro's back, coaxing him to stop coughing. Juushiro eventually stopped, and leaned back into Shunsui's arms. "I love you," he muttered. Unfortunately for him though, he fell asleep before he could even see the look on his old friend's face.

……….

The next few days had been awkward for Juushiro. His cough had lifted temporarily, but was still there, and he often had to excuse himself to go get a drink of water. He still had plenty of work though, and he tried to use it to keep his mind off of his confession to Shunsui, but it didn't work, for his mind would still drift to forgotten questions: How did Shunsui react? Did he leave immediately, or hang around a bit? Was he offended by it? Do I even know if he heard me? These questions bothered Juushiro, particularly the last one. He knew he would never get another opportunity like that, not to mention it was completely spur-of-the-moment. He frowned and leaned on his elbows. If he did hear it, what if he had been offended by it? After all, when Juushiro awoke the next morning, he found himself propped up on nothing but pillows. His friends pink haori, however, was still wrapped around him; a tiny sliver of hope that his friend still cared about him enough not to disturb his sleep. Or had that only been it, so that he wouldn't awake his sleeping friend? Thinking about these made Juushiro's head spin. He could use a really good cup of tea right now, though not one made by Kiyone or Sentaro; that would only lead to fighting. He could, and would, make this one himself.

Just as he was about to get up, there was a knock at his door. _Oh great, I'll bet it's Kiyone and Sentaro again…_Juushiro thought. "Come in," he said, ready to douse the fire. But it wasn't Kiyone or Sentaro. It was Shunsui.

"Oh, hello," said Juushiro, immediately feeling his face light up and feeling awkward.

"Hello, yourself," said Shunsui, smiling. "You look like you're up to your ears in paperwork, need any help?"

"Thank you, I could use some help. But don't you have your own paperwork to do?"

"Yep, but Nanao said she'd do it all by herself today, so long as I kept out of her hair." He smiled a big grin. Juushiro couldn't help but chuckle.

"Okay. Here are some of my Division's reports; I'm about to turn them into Captain-General Yamamoto, but I need someone to check them for spelling errors. Not that it'd matter, in my opinion, Old-man Yamamoto probably can't even read it the handwriting is so bad on some of these…"

"…And because he's old."

"Yes, because he's old," said Juushiro, smiling. "I'm also finishing up some work for Ninth Division. I feel so bad for poor Shuuhei; over the course of one day, he went from having a Captain, and thus getting help with his paperwork, to having the whole thing dumped on his shoulders. So I volunteered to help.

"Juushiro Ukitake, always the good samaritan…" said Shunsui lazily as he picked up a report. Juushiro didn't know what he was thinking; Shunsui was one of the worst spellers in the entire Soul Society. He really only asked him for help because he needed the company, not to mention he hoped that Shunsui would bring up the little comment Juushiro had made the other day, so the two could talk about it.

Five minutes, then ten, then half and hour had past before anyone made a noise. Juushiro didn't really believe that Shunsui had found no spelling errors; either he couldn't find them, or was too lazy to pick up a red pencil and correct them. After about and hour, Juushiro was in the middle of one of Ninth Division's reports when he saw Shunsui pick up the red pencil and started scribbling on a small piece of scrap paper. _What's he doing?_ Juushiro couldn't help but think. After a few minutes, Juushiro piped up. "Working on a little art project, are we?" he chuckled. Shunsui looked up from his little hunched postitsion over the smaller-than-three-inches-squared piece of paper. He straightened himself, folded up the tiny piece of paper, then let it go, the slight breeze floating it over to Juushiro's side of the table. Juushiro looked at Shunsui, who nodded, and opened it up.

On it was a tiny red heart, and written inside of it was "Shunsui luves Juushiro back". Juushiro looked up, surprised. Shunsui winked at him, a big grin on his face.

"Anytime you want to sit in my lap again, all you have to do is ask!" he smiled, lust in his eyes. Juushiro leaned across the table and kissed the tip of his nose. "The faster we work, the faster I can…" he smiled. He had never seen Shunsui edit faster, if at all.


End file.
